For the past three weeks, Haiti’s capital has been ensnared in a relentless cycle of violence surpassing its previous reputation for kidnapping and gang activity.

A coalition of heavily armed gangs is waging a brutal campaign against the city itself, vying for control of new territory while targeting law enforcement and government institutions.

Fearing for their safety, and fueled by anger, vigilante groups are barricading their neighborhoods with fallen trees and chains, resorting to violence against outsiders suspected of gang affiliation in a desperate bid for self-defense.

The streets are strewn with human remains, yet the multinational security mission once heralded by Haiti’s neighbors as a solution to its gang crisis is conspicuously absent, CNN reported.

Large portions of the Haitian government have collapsed, with gangs occupying courts, prisons left unguarded, and the prime minister effectively in exile, leaving the country’s finance minister to act in his place.

Even the Ministry of Communications buildings have been overrun by refugees escaping gang violence, with hungry children now taking refuge on the floor and playing on office chairs.

Amid this chaos, Haiti’s National Police stand as one of the few remaining functional state institutions. However, they are grappling with inadequate resources and overwhelming demands.

Each day, the police confront gang attacks, engaging in gun battles that reverberate across the city, only to be redeployed to a different neighborhood the next day as gangs reclaim their territories.

Written by B.C. Begley